"I wanted to get closer to the companies themselves and have more involvement with the actual operating businesses" – an interview with Simon Jackson

I recently caught up with Simon Jackson, Director, in order to learn a bit more about his RIG story.

When and why did you join RIG?

I joined RIG in June 2009 by osmosis. I first started working on one client, and within 2-3 months I was fully engaged working on 3 clients. I’d known Shields for a long time and always thought that what he did and the way he talked about it was very interesting.

I’m a technophile and my career has kind of gone in the opposite direction of flow to some people in some ways. I started off as a fund manager so I was very far away from the things that I was investing in and so I had no influence over those things. Then I was in M&A for technology related companies. In M&A, there’s a lot of excitement in doing the deal and then the real work starts once the merger or acquisition is completed. So I wanted to get closer to the companies themselves and have more involvement with the actual operating businesses.

So essentially your background was as a…?

Frustrated scientist meets techno wannabe.

How would you define your role at RIG?

I wear a couple of hats. So, one is as a regular member of the RIG team which is all about winning and delivering high quality client work.

Then, as a director of the firm, it’s about shaping the direction of the firm. We have been thinking a lot recently about how to grow the firm in a non-incremental fashion. I also act as an ambassador for the firm; seeking to engage with people and build on that which will hopefully bring high value opportunities to RIG. Not just clients, but also high value transactions, potential investors – leveraging X for the benefit of RIG.

With the finance hat on, I do financial planning for the firm: how to grow value for the firm; how to find good ways of compensating individuals; how to create incentivisation plans that reward individuals for being engaged. That’s the finance side of trying to make RIG an exciting place to work, grow, and be rewarded. Along with Shields, I think about team development and team growth.

I also want to help embed in the firm a culture of equity ownership, which is about us owning the investment in other companies and the culture in RIG needed to facilitate it. Part of that is to extend RIG’s skill set in a financial direction because, over time, we are building out the things that we can do with companies.